Wellbeing isn’t a new topic that’s just popped up on the radar for most, although it might be the first time we’ve taken an interest, or we might be feeling more inspired to start implementing it into our lives, or we might simply want to find out more.
Beingwell are a family of neuroscientists, behavioural experts, wellbeing warriors and life coaches united by one mission: to help millions of people live a little bit better every day!
But what do we really mean?
We’ve seen top tips, expert tricks and wellbeing hacks spread across the media, seeping into our lives for some time now, but what does all of this actually mean for us? Individually. Not us as a species, not as a group, us as an individual.
We can all do things to better our lifestyles that will improve our wellbeing, our physical health, our mental health. Remember being told throughout our school years that “it’s ok to be different”, or “we are all unique, no one is quite the same”? So why is it that we now read universal, overarching (albeit good) advice? If we’re all so unique how can we follow a one-shoe-fits-all approach to our wellbeing?
The answer is, we can't. Now, we're not saying that the current wellbeing advice is anything but solid, honest and for the most part, accurate. What we are saying is that there are a few things we need to bring to the table:
Patience
Practice
A pinch of salt
It takes time
Working towards bettering our own lives, through wellbeing, takes time. It’s like going to the gym. We don’t arrive, do a HIIT session and lift some weights for us to suddenly be leaving with ripped abs and toned glutes, do we? (if you do, we want to know your secret). Training takes time, effort and commitment, and most of all patience and practice, to see results, and so does our wellbeing.
And on the lines of the gym, does everyone we know go to the gym? Absolutely not. We don’t all get our physical activity by going to the gym, we aren’t all yogis and we certainly aren’t all footballers. So, again, why would we tackle our wellbeing by all doing the same thing?
This is why we need a little pinch of salt. The old saying means to not completely believe everything we’re told, a very wise phrase and one we should apply to wellbeing. We won’t find that every suggestion works for us because we’re all unique, we will find different things do work and others just aren’t for us.
“Practice makes perfect” right?
Wrong. Not many of us can do anything perfectly, not because we’re not good enough or we don’t try. Because we are human, and humans are imperfect. Practice, however, does make us better.
It’s like learning to write. It starts off rather scribbly, wonky, almost incomprehensible, and it becomes a little bit better and neater each day until we find the swing of things and our handwriting is clear and concise - we’ll have to exclude any doctors here (you know what we mean) but we will blame the quick scribbles on attending to slightly more pressing matters like saving lives, we are eternally grateful!
Like our writing, our wellbeing will improve day by day the more we practice healthy routines. They don’t have to be rigid, but they can be, they don’t have to include everything, but they could do. Whatever works for us as individuals, and with daily practice, we will begin to live our best lives.
Notice we didn’t say perfect. Practising our wellbeing every day won’t see perfect health and happiness either. Sorry! We wish it could but stuff happens and life gets in the way.
What is living our best life?
Good wellbeing is not living the perfect life, full of joy and contentment and never feeling sad, worried, stressed or exhausted. It’s living the best way we can while handling the rougher patches and darker times, plodding through to experience the wonders when they are around. We need the bad vibes to truly feel the good ones, and vice versa.
If we approach wellbeing advice with a pinch of salt, practice and patience, without huge expectations and visions of perfection we will actually be living our best lives, and we’re here to make it simple.
So what are you waiting for, go start living your best life right now! We dare you.
Best wishes,
The Beingwell Family
